How Does Stafford Loans Forgiveness Program Work If I’m Going To Be A Nurse?
If you apply for direct Stafford loan and are going to school to become a nurse, there is a “Stafford loan forgiveness program for nursing”. Some states specifically will get special permission to forgive loans to those nurses who graduate from a program and serve in a public service job as a community health nurse or in non-profit programs that aid families and children who are high-risk for health problems and diseases. Maryland is one such state.
Essentially a nursing student can apply for this just like any other student whose profession can take them into the civil service arena or the military. Just like those other students too, only the final 120 payments on loans not defaulted upon and even consolidated can be and are forgiven. It is the student’s responsibility to pay the rest; however if your loan amount(s) are high, 120 payments is a pretty substantial chunk of change.
On the other hand, if you die serving the military before time is up, your loans are forgiven anyway. Hardship deferments can be applied for if you would prefer to avoid death and injury until you can get your career under way. Working as a nurse in a regular hospital or hospice care does not count unless you volunteer forty hours or more a week of your time taking care of patients that normally you would be paid to care for. You also have to work forty hours a week, paid, to qualify in any forgiveness program, nursing or other. If you are also volunteering rather than taking a career path to loan forgiveness, this is an eighty hour plus work week and you best be prepared to miss out on everything else in life to accomplish your goal.
Continue reading about “NELRP” known as “Nursing education loan repayment program“.
Also find details on Student loan forgiveness for nurse practitioners too.